Can You Be Happy for 100 Days in a Row?

I came across a website asking this question. I’ll link to it at the bottom.

The site says this:

We live in times when super-busy schedules have become something to boast about. While the speed of life increases, there is less and less time to enjoy the moment that you are in. The ability to appreciate the moment, the environment and yourself in it, is the base for the bridge towards long term happiness of any human being. 71% of people tried to complete this challenge, but failed quoting lack of time as the main reason. These people simply did not have time to be happy. Do you?

I hope you do. And it is up to you to decide to have the time.

Running around with your arse on fire feeling overwhelming time pressure is caused by a number of things:

1. Trying to impress people – bosses, friends, your Mother etc.

This is only acceptable when you are younger than you are now and have yet to learn better. It also shows what they psychoists call a lack of agency (stupid word for it but I cannot think of a better one). You are saying you need others to make you whole…that ain’t no way to get happy no it ain’t.

2. No plan.

No plan equals no focus. Or I should say no valuable focus. Your brain will focus whether you like it or not. Like a shark must always swim, your brain must always be focused. The choice is yours as to what your brain will be focused on. Something worthwhile (work or fun) or a distraction usually spewing out of a screen.

3. Addiction to the shiny-shiny.

When I wake up at the weekend one of two things will happen after I have made the coffee. I will read something, some one thing, for an hour or so OR I will flit through a hundred shiny shiny little things on my iPad. Then I’ll get up. The former is energising. The latter is energy sucking and mind-scrambling.

Lack of time…

…is of course, nonsense.

There’s plenty of time. You do what you want to do. So saying I don’t have time is the same as saying I don’t want to do that. The only exception to this is if you really are truly at the mercy of one of the three points above in which case get a coach before you need a psychiatrist (the latter being cheaper than a good coach but if you annoy a psychiatrist they can have you committed whereas the coach will help you get committed.)

Anyway, having no time is about you, not time.

Here’s the website’s challenge…

…submit a picture every day, one picture, of what made you happy that day.

This is actually a great idea.

It is great because it forces us to be in the present. Here and now. The only happiness that makes you happy is today’s happiness. So we need to be present. It also makes us grateful for what we have. I know this seems dreadfully Victorian: the admonition to be happy with what we have, instead of working hard thinking that something that cannot breathe will cause you happiness.

Make yourself happy?

Don’t try to make yourself happy. OK, if there’s a thorn in your side pull it out. If there’s a smell in your environment change your environment. These are the hygiene issues I discussed in another post – they can make you unhappy but not happy. So if you have some of these remove them.

After that, just be happy. I am sitting here writing this at midday on the last day of March and the smell of spring coming through my window is making me happy. I am aware of it and I allow it to make me happy. I am present, cool , calm and collected.

Not sure how to take a picture of it though.

The website says that those who successfully complete the challenge:

Start noticing what makes them happy every day;

Be in a better mood every day;

Start receiving more compliments from other people;

Realise how lucky they are to have the life they have;

Become more optimistic;

Fall in love during the challenge.

If you want to be happy, focus on being happy. Give it some of your time, of which you have tons.